General Discussion about various 24-Hour Races. What are your favorites? (Read 890 times)

Just some other thoughts. If my hands are swelling, I may just raise them to the sky (or at least to shoulders) and shake them for a bit. Sometimes that fixes things. (I used to get swollen hands when backpacking sometimes.) If that doesn't work, I may pop an Scap or two over the next couple hours. For *me* in the conditions of my races, that usually works - so far.

I used this strategy at Pine Mountain 40 Mile Trail Run yesterday, and it seemed to help. Yet again, we had an unseasonably hot day at a race, and I found myself struggling more with cramps and increased hydration. My hands never swelled to a dangerous level, because I took steps right away to keep the problem in check. Holding my hands in the air during walk breaks and shaking them worked the blood flow.

My biggest fear is that I will get out there in one of these 24-hour races, see a problem start to occur, and do the exact opposite thing I should do, and end up making it worse as opposed to helping it. As mentioned, the symptoms can be conflicting for some ailments and if you have too much salt, but think you have too little salt, and you take more salt in instead of laying off of it, thus worsening the problem...

That kind of thing is what I worry about most. -- I think it will take some more trial and error for me with some really long practice runs to really figure out what my body is telling me is occurring and how best to handle it.

--Note on the Dumass races, I think the HOSTELity is out for me, I am a flatland runner and not a fan of hills! But the Merrill-mile 24 looks like a nice flat one that I want to do.

If you have been to a few 100 mile races and see 50 year old - 60 year old or in the case of Fast Eddie 70 year old guys hitting 100 miles. I know a few of the people who hit 100 miles that do not train more than 30-40 MPW, are not as fast as you and they can hit 100 in the 24. It is because they are mentally strong (Masochists), understand what to do and they know how to solve problems.

24 hour races are different animals - At least in a marathon, 50 or 100 mile race you have a finish line fulling you forward or you DNF. In a 24 hour race as soon as you finsih you 1st lap you will not DNF. Time is a hard concept for some to wrap their mind around.

Yep. I was honoured to be on the track to see Geoff Oliver break 2 world records and 4 national records in a 24hr race in 2009. He was 76 yrs old at the time and ran a total of 111 miles, hitting the 100 mile mark in 20hrs.

This link has an interesting report which gives you a bit of a feel for how a 24 goes down. I'm mentioned at the 6hr point, when I was in 5th place.... and am not mentioned again - that tells the story of my race!

--- I have done only one 24-hour race, the Hampton VA 24-Hour Run for Cancer iin Apr 2012, but I loved this race. (Correction, Loved it through mile 30, hated it by mile 40 and felt I would never do one again, then 2 days later I loved it again and can't wait for the 2013 race).

But this is just a general discussion with the main focus being what 24-hour races have you run, and which do you feel were the best??

I am considering the Peanut Island-24, and also I have put the North Coast-24 Fall race on my schedule. Other races I have looked at are the Dumass events races (24 hours of HOSTELity and the Merrill Mile 24-hour race in GA).

Anyone have any other 24-hour races that they would do (or would not do) again?

I didn't get on with Hampton - the loop is too long for high mileage and the race organization seemed poor the year I ran it. I've written up race reports for North Coast, Hinson Lake (nc), and Freedom Park (nc) at http://fellrnr.com/wiki/Main_Page#Race_Reports (You might find the race report from Poland interesting, but not relevant to this thread.)

Summary - Hinson Lake is the most fun, but Freedom Park and North Coast have the potential for higher mileage.

---Jason and OnOn, I am thinking you guys may be right with best guess being that I was drinking too much. 4 bottles of Gatorade at 32 ounces a bottle, might have put too much into me and I am thinking the best solution if I start getting swelling next time in a similar scenario is to do what was mentioned and slow down on the liquid intake for a while and let things go back to normal if that happens again.

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So, you drank 128 ounces of Gatorade in 11 to 12 hours (10oz/hr)? This hardly seems excessive and very well could have been insufficient. Obviously your sweat rate would be the determining factor.